


Finding You

by gelowo93



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, M/M, Post Finale, Reunion, resurrected arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 21:24:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gelowo93/pseuds/gelowo93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an Apocalyptic world where the world is overrun by demons, Merlin spends his days travelling, destroying the creatures as he goes, waiting for the day when Arthur will return. Meanwhile, Arthur has returned and is following the rumours that Merlin leaves behind in his wake, desperate to find his former servant again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding You

He is the ranger in the mountains.

The shadow in the trees, the whisper of the wind, the protector of the people. They call him all these names as he travels from place to place, saving people from the terrors that had infested the world, but moving on before anyone could get a good look at him, or ask for a name. They see him as a vigilante, doing his part despite the governments doing their best at controlling the monsters; they speculate that he made it his job to rid the world of the monsters – it was his destiny, some said – and he would continue travelling until he destroyed them all, never wanting any thanks or reward for his actions.

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

But right now Merlin could hardly deny that that was what his life had become. He had seen the two winged demons fighting above the mountains, and - on a path above his own - a group of terrified travellers running to a gap in the rock, when another one of the demons had landed in front of them, and they had become the next group of people that he was going to save.

Merlin ran along the narrow path, staying close to the mountain wall and letting his cloak billow out behind him. He turned a corner and the demon came into view. It had its back to him, and it was edging forwards toward the small group of people, snarling from a mouth frothing with saliva.

Without hesitating, Merlin raised his staff, and there was a deafening crack as boulders fell from the mountain above them, falling onto the demon and sending it tumbling down the edge of the cliff with a screech.

He carried on towards the two fighting demons in the air, slower now that the people weren’t in immediate danger but fast enough so that they wouldn’t be able to get a proper look at him. He passed them, ignoring their shouts of thanks, focussing only on the two demons. They kept crashing into the mountain, sending rocks falling down along with drops of purplish blood. One would briefly gain the upper hand, only to lose it a moment later as the other bit it and tore flesh from its shoulder. Their lizard-like tails wrapped around each other, crushing the other’s ribcage until the smaller of the two let go, and it fell onto the ridge that Merlin was on, sending vibrations through the ground that made him stumble.

The smaller demon seemed to have lost the fight, as the other dived to finish it off. Merlin stepped behind a nearby boulder on the path so that the larger one wouldn’t see him. He peered round the side, and watched the larger demon devour the smaller with teeth that were several inches long and had the diameter of a pencil. High-pitched screeches came from the smaller demon as it was torn to shreds, piercing the silence of the mountains and echoing until it was all Merlin could hear.

Despite having dedicating this period of his life to destroying the demons that had been terrorising the planet for years, this was the closest he had ever come to one of the creatures, preferring to stay a safe distance from them while killing them. Their heads were vaguely dragon-like, with long faces and square jaws, though they were most definitely not dragons; Merlin had found out a long time ago when he had tried and failed to use his Dragonlord powers on them, and had nearly died in the process. Small red eyes were set deep in their skulls, which stood out against the mottled black and purple leathery skin. The bodies were vaguely humanoid, but greatly elongated, and from head to tip of the tail, they were at least ten feet tall with small spikes running the length of their muscled backs. Both hands and feet ended in sharp claws, and the arms had wings attached to them, much like a bat’s.

The screeches from the dying demon stopped long before the sound of flesh being torn, chewed, and swallowed. It was slowing down though, and Merlin knew that this would likely be his only chance to get rid of this one.

Before stepping out from behind the boulder, Merlin glanced back at the huddle of people. They were standing in an opening in the mountain wall, but were edging out into the open. Merlin shook his head at them, hoping that the hood of his cloak was low enough to hide his face, and they stopped abruptly.

Grateful that they had understood to not get in his way, Merlin strode round the edge of the boulder, right into the demon’s line of sight.

It looked up at the sign of movement and snarled, spraying Merlin with half eaten demon flesh. He grimaced, but took several slow steps forwards, testing to see how close he could get. The demon was moving slower now that it had eaten compared to the lightning fast movements of before, and Merlin knew he would only have one chance to aim before it tried to attack him. He doubted he’d be able to put up as much of a resistance as the other demon if this one got any closer.

The demon was still watching him with wary eyes, and Merlin realised that it wasn’t just sluggish after it had eaten, it was downright vulnerable. He didn’t stop to wonder why – Merlin raised his staff, murmuring a short spell, and slammed it back into the ground. The ground around his staff cracked, but Merlin’s attention was fixed on the creature in front of him, whose skin dissolved in front of his eyes until all that was left was a pile of bones and a puddle of melted flesh.

Not wanting to stand around to admire his handiwork, Merlin turned around and walked back the way he had come. He kept his head down to prevent anyone seeing his face as he passed the small crowd still standing in the gap in the mountain wall. They looked like they were in shock, staring at the torn apart corpse and puddle of flesh where, ten minutes ago, there had been two fighting demons. Merlin muttered a few choice spells as he went, making himself unnoticeable, but he was too late; a small girl no taller than his waist, and who couldn’t have been older than six or seven years old, had already spotted him walking their way, and she ran out from the hiding place.

Shouts of “come back here” and “Gwyneth, no!” followed the girl as she ran towards Merlin. He was taken by surprise when she ran straight into him, hugging his legs. He hesitated for a moment before picking her up gently. Her eyes were red and puffy, and tear tracks ran down her cheeks.  She was mumbling something into Merlin’s shoulder, and it took him a moment to realise that she was thanking him in between muffled sobs.

“It’s ok, the monsters are gone, look – well, don’t because that’s a bit gross – they can’t harm you now.”

The girl – Gwyneth – sobbed harder, and Merlin struggled to work out what she was saying.

“There’re more… bigger and - and scarier ones.”

“I know, but I’ll get rid of those as well.”

Gwyneth looked up at him, then, and for once Merlin didn’t mind someone seeing his face and knowing what he looked like; it was an unnecessary precaution when she was too young to be surprised that a man who had been talked of for decades didn’t look a day older than twenty-five.

“You will?”

“Yeah.”

ooOOoo

The sun hadn’t risen properly when Arthur left the small camp he had made. It was his favourite time of day, when the air was cool and the world was silent apart from your own movements, but then slowly, so slowly you didn’t even notice it, the sky would begin to lighten, the birds would awaken and start to sing, and, if you were lucky, you could watch the sky turn blue and pink and orange as the sun made its way higher in the sky. He had so many good memories of sunrises long since passed, of early morning hunts with his father, early starts with his knights, and those rare moments he had caught with Guinevere when they had ridden out early to watch the sunrise together.

He was hunting now, but it was an entirely different type of hunt to when he would be out with the dogs and a handful of knights, with Merlin dragging behind, holding them up, and generally being a nuisance. If someone had told Arthur then that he would spend years searching for his annoying manservant he would have laughed in their face, but that was exactly what Arthur was doing because he _knew._

Arthur knew that Merlin was alive; the rumours and whisperings he had heard about a man in the mountains who had enormous power could only be about him. And if Merlin was alive, then what was stopping everyone else he had known being alive too? All Arthur had to do was find Merlin, and he would be able to find the others, and then…

And then Arthur didn’t know what. For once, he didn’t have a plan of what to do, something that he blamed his lack of knowledge of this world for. Everything had changed since he had been king, and now he was reduced to living rough, his only possessions the clothes on his back and the sword at his side. Arthur remembered dreaming of this once, not being rich and well-known, but a peasant and having to work to survive; he was starting to wonder if he had been the idiot Merlin had so often told him he was. It wasn’t enjoyable having to scavenge food and rely on the kindness of others to get you through the cold winters, winters made even more dangerous by the creatures that had invaded the world.

No one Arthur had spoken to in the past three years knew why or how the creatures had appeared; one day, the world had been carrying on as it usually did, and the next there had been sightings of the huge demons in the isolated mountains of north-east Russia.  It had taken less than a year for the demons to spread across the planet, causing governments and entire countries to collapse as they went, and devastating regions they passed through. Societies were forced from their homes to live in isolated and harsh environments where they hoped the demons wouldn’t follow, but they hadn’t anticipated the ability of the creatures to adapt, and now there were more varieties of them, each just as vicious and dangerous as the others.

Arthur found his way back to the path he had been following the previous day and left in order to make camp. According to the last map he had seen at a poor farmer’s house who had let him in for a few days before the demons had come, this path would take him south-west through the mountain range and towards a warmer climate. He wasn’t too keen on passing through the mountains where there were flying species of the creatures, but there were more recent whisperings of The Protector in this area, and Arthur’s only hope was to follow the rumours wherever they sent him if he was to find Merlin again.

The day passed with little change in scenery, despite keeping a good pace the entire time. For the first few hours, Arthur passed no one on the path, but once it reached mid-morning, he began to see a few more people travelling. There were never many people on these routes that went through the more isolated regions, but Arthur guessed that there had been attacks at a village nearby by the sight of more than one group travelling with carts filled with their possessions. It filled him with rage that these people had lost their homes and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them or help, because everyone was in the same situation.

Well, that wasn’t quite true. Presumably, Merlin had the power to stop the monsters but he couldn’t be everywhere at once, and Arthur…

He had found that his sword was fairly good at destroying the demons – the terrestrial ones at any rate – but he had no real shield to defend himself with, and he was mortal. Or thought he was. For all intents and purposes he was, Arthur had decided, because while he did seem to have been resurrected, coming back to life two thousand years after he died wasn’t exactly what he would call immortal, and he didn’t want to find out if he could be killed again. Dying had been painful enough the first time, and he was going to put off dying again as long as possible.

That day was a good day. No demons appeared out of the shadows to attack Arthur, the path went through a patch of fruit trees and he was able to take some of the fruit, eating them as he walked, and when he was looking for somewhere to make camp for the night, Arthur stumbled across a group of travellers willing to share their food and who had weapons in case they were attacked. They didn’t ask questions, and allowed Arthur to join them as long as he took a watch.

The next day was more of the same. Arthur stopped by a stream to fill his waterskin. He passed more travellers, nodding in greeting and subtly trying to see if any of them was Merlin. So much time had passed, and it had been so long since Arthur had seen him, that he wondered if he would recognise Merlin if he saw him. He hoped he would.

Some of the travellers he passed spoke of a cloaked man wandering the mountains. They were never quite sure who he was, as he kept his head bowed and his hood low when they came close to him. He travelled light, they said, carrying nought but his staff, and speaking to no one. Arthur had trouble reconciling this image of Merlin with the one he had of the chatty servant who always smiled and over-packed for any journey. It was times like this when Arthur grew anxious at the thought of finding Merlin, wondering how the years had treated him. Arthur imagined how he would feel if he had been alone for thousands of years, and he decided that he wouldn’t blame Merlin if he had become bitter and cold, because he was sure that was what he would become after all that time.

It was past midday and the sun was high in the sky when the quiet of the path winding through a small section of forest was disturbed. There was the distant sound of metallic roars echoing through the trees, punctuated by the crashing of falling trees.

Arthur knew better than to hang around and see what was making the noises. He started walking quicker, but not wanting the heavy footfalls of running to attract attention to him.

The roars grew louder, and Arthur knew he would be trapped when the creatures finally caught up with him – to one side of him was the forest, to the other was a sheer cliff wall of the mountain. He wouldn’t be able to outrun them, leaving the only option being to fight them off, and that was only if there was one or two of the creatures.

Arthur drew his sword, and kept walking. He wasn’t going to stay still if there was any chance that they might not have smelled or heard him, but he knew there was no point trying to outrun them; he had tried that once, and had had to be saved by a farmer with a shotgun who just happened to be harvesting his field at the time when Arthur ran into a dead end.

Not letting himself be afraid of the demons, Arthur followed the path. He could hear them behind him, getting closer and closer, the crashing of the felled trees merging with the roars that grew louder with every passing second. Arthur quickened his pace, hoping to reach somewhere he could hide – or at least gain a fighting advantage over them – before they came into sight. It didn’t seem likely though, and when Arthur felt the ground vibrating because of the falling trees he knew it was no good.

Arthur turned around to face the direction that he thought the demons were coming from. He took a long drink from his waterskin, secured it to his belt, and raised his sword, automatically shifting into the fighting stance he had perfected a long time ago.

The first demon crawled out from the cover of the trees, its head low and teeth bared. It was about shoulder height on Arthur, and six feet long, with leathery dark green skin that clung to muscle and bone. Creeping forwards on four legs, it raised its spiked tail like a scorpion would; Arthur saw something reflect the sunlight on the tip of the tail, and guessed it was a stinger.

As if he needed another reason to stay away from the things.

More followed the first, enough for Arthur to know that he had very little chance of defeating them. The first one opened its mouth in an earth shattering roar. Arthur braced himself, ready for them to attack, but they didn’t. They carried on edging nearer, while Arthur stepped backwards, keeping the same distance between them.

One behind what Arthur assumed was the leader snapped its teeth, as if impatient. The leader growled in warning –

It sprung at Arthur. He wasn’t expecting the attack, but he managed to swing his sword and side step, cutting the demon along the length of its body. However, stepping aside to avoid it brought him closer to the pack, and Arthur quickly retreated until he had them all in sight again, his back to the cliff wall.

The leader lunged again, and this time Arthur was ready. There was a metallic clashing noise as Arthur’s sword hit the demon’s claws and it was pushed aside mid-jump, landing several feet away and licking its paws.

It attacked again. And again. Arthur blocked it each time, stepping to the side just in time to swing at it with his sword again, but the demon’s skin was thick and hard, and Arthur’s blade was barely scratching the surface. His sword grew heavier with each swing, as his arms became tired and his breaths shallower. Arthur started feeling annoyed with himself with each failed attempt to make contact with the demon. He wished he was as strong and healthy as he used to be, but he barely had enough food to stave off the hunger, never mind to keep him in top physical shape.

The demon jumped once more. Arthur swung his sword to disrupt its trajectory and stepped forwards so that he was behind it, twisting round to face its back, and pushing the sword through its side with all his strength.

It screamed, and Arthur forced the sword in deeper, twisting it. He pulled it out when he felt the creature go limp and fall to the floor. Arthur kicked it onto its back, thrusting his sword into its chest to make sure it was dead. Panting, Arthur removed his sword from the demon’s abdomen.

He looked up from the dead creature to see the pack, which had stayed still while Arthur had fought the leader, forming a ring around him. One of the demons from the back moved forwards

It was larger than all the others by half. It snarled at Arthur, showing teeth that were a foot long.

And Arthur realised what the pack had done. He looked down at the creature he had killed and saw that it was smaller than the others and had a number of open cuts along its back and tail that Arthur had definitely not created.

They had sacrificed a weaker member of the pack to tire him out, to test him, to see if they would be able to kill him or if it would be wiser to leave him be.

And they had decided that he was weak enough to kill.

ooOOoo

Merlin had tried to hand the little girl back to her mother and leave, he really had. But the group had insisted on thanking him one by one, and it hadn’t helped that Gwyneth had refused to let him go, shouting over all the other noise that he was going to save them all and get rid of the monsters. She had insisted on pulling at his hood, and eventually she pulled it down, revealing his face to everyone.

There had been a shocked silence as people struggled to accept that someone who had been talked about for decades looked as young as he did. The shock slowly lifted, and they asked him if he had a particular destination, and insisted that he walk with them.

Which was why he was now leading the group along the path through the mountains.

They travelled slowly up the mountain path; of the six people that Merlin had joined, one was seven year old Gwyneth, there were two old women – Priya and Melissa - a man who only had one leg and introduced himself as Rowan, as well as Gwyneth’s parents, Bran and Niamh. It was the biggest group of misfits that Merlin had seen in his years of journeying through the mountains, and he supposed that adding himself, an immortal sorcerer, only made the group even more unlikely.

 As they walked, Merlin listened in to the conversations going on around him, and he soon learned how they happened to come across each other from how they acted around each other: it was a mixture of helping those in need, joining with others in an alliance, and just meeting people who were travelling in the same direction. Merlin didn’t join in the conversation. He stayed silent, still managing to be pleasantly surprised that, while the world around them was falling apart, people had the time to help others, if only so that they weren’t alone.

Merlin smiled to himself. After so many years, it was easy to forget that people were inherently good.

He heard the quickened pace of running footsteps behind him, and looked around to see Bran catching up with him. Merlin stopped and waited.

“Hi,” Bran said, panting slightly.

“Hello. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, we were just thinking of stopping for a break. We’ve been walking for a while and some of us are getting hungry.”

“No problem.” Merlin looked back at the group: Niamh was carrying Gwyneth, and the others were sat on rocks that lined the path. They were further back than he thought they were; Merlin hadn’t realised how far ahead of them he had gotten.

They walked back to the group in silence. Priya was unpacking the bag that held their small amount of food, taking out just enough for each of them to have enough to keep them going for another few hours. In the meantime, Rowan was walking along the path searching for trees and plants growing in the cracks that they could use for firewood.

“Why do you do it? Putting yourself in danger to help strangers?” Bran asked suddenly.

Merlin sighed. Doing something for no gain of your own was such an unknown concept nowadays that people couldn’t believe someone would do something just to be nice.

“I have the power to, so I do,” Merlin lied.

“But you don’t know us, or anyone. You could have just carried on walking and not looked back,” Bran pushed for an answer that he found acceptable, and Merlin could tell that he wasn’t going to let the conversation drop until he had one.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes and bad decisions that have led to people dying, you could say doing this is my penance.”

Bran nodded, and as they reached the others, he went to his wife and daughter. Merlin sat down on a free rock, and when Rowan returned with the firewood, he made short work of starting a campfire for them.

Truth was, with the arrival of the creatures it had become too dangerous to stay in the same place, so Merlin had been forced to move from his secluded home that looked out on the Tower of Avalon, and to keep moving. He hadn’t wanted to, it was breaking his promise to Arthur, but the Tower seemed to have attracted the creatures, and Merlin didn’t want to risk them finding the magical artefacts that he had collected over the years. He had packed up and left, with no destination in mind, merely to keep living until The Once And Future King returned.

It wasn’t his fault that the monsters also seemed to prefer travelling along the isolated routes that he walked. Merlin hadn’t set out to rescue people travelling along these paths, but when people were in danger, he couldn’t stand by and watch as they were killed.

He had seen enough death and destruction in his time.

Merlin surprised himself the first time it happened. He had seen the large winged creature on the path ahead, jaws wide, and advancing on a couple who had their backs pressed against the rock of the mountain. The hand holding his staff had risen of its own accord, and before he had known what he was doing, he was saying the first spell that came to mind, and a bolt of lightning struck the beast between the eyes. It had let out a howl of pain and flew away, leaving the couple shaken, but alive. Their shouts of thanks followed Merlin as he turned his back to find another route through the mountains.

It was as if that day had woken him from sleepwalking through life, and since then he had made an effort to help those he came across, rather than keeping his head down and ignoring everything around him. Merlin looked back on those first few years of travelling alone and shuddered; he wasn’t proud of how he had acted, and in a way he hadn’t lied to Bran when he said that he helped people because he hadn’t in the past. He blamed it on living alone for too long, and did his best to put it behind him.

Someone pushed a bowl into his hands, and Merlin looked up to see Gwyneth, smiling so that her grin seemed to take up half her face. Merlin smiled back, thanking her, which only made her grin widen, and she skipped back to her parents.

Merlin didn’t join in the conversation while they ate, preferring to stay silent. Nobody spoke much after spending the day so far walking, but when they did Merlin didn’t contribute, or if they asked him questions he replied with the bare minimum. Everyone seemed nice enough now, but when he left them, he didn’t want more rumours cropping up about him and spreading, it was bad enough that people had started knowing the direction he was currently travelling because of others who had seen him.

It didn’t take them long to finish the food, and pack up their temporary camp. Moving on quickly was something that travellers learnt how to do quickly nowadays. They were just ready to set off again when the deafening screech echoed through the mountain pass.

Everyone turned to look at Merlin, fear evident on their faces. Niamh reached for Gwyneth and held her close.

“Stay here,” Merlin said, not looking at anyone. He stood up and followed the direction the noise had come from. There was no doubt that it was another demon, but how close it was to them Merlin didn’t know. He followed the path on its gentle decline, and Merlin was slightly grateful that he was coming to the end of the mountains for now. As he walked, there came intermittent screeches from the demon that told him that he was getting closer, and after a particularly loud one, Merlin raised his staff in preparation.

He rounded a corner, and, between the sounds of what Merlin had come to recognise as demons hunting, Merlin could hear the metallic clanging of steel against steel. Without even deciding on it, Merlin found himself walking faster –running – towards the source of the noise, almost as if something was pulling him in that direction. Suddenly he knew he had to reach whoever it was in trouble, and he was sure that someone was being attacked, and it wasn’t just the demons hunting.

Merlin had a gut feeling. It had been a long time since he had had a gut feeling about this sort of thing, but he had not forgotten the times he had ignored it and taken another course of action that had ultimately led to many people paying for his mistakes with their lives.

The fighting sounds grew louder and louder as Merlin ran, until he reached a section of the path that ran parallel with another fifty metres or so below the one he was on. Merlin kept an eye on the lower path as well as his own, just in case there were more demons than he thought. He was panting now, out of breath from the running, but certain that he was close - close to _what_ exactly he didn’t know, and he didn’t dare think about it, or start to hope, because he hadn’t had hope in a long time, he had resigned himself to this life, no matter what Kilgharrah had told him thousands of years ago, and he was content, if not exactly happy, to live his life this way.

There was nothing wrong with living to protect other people. It seemed like that was what he had done before anyway.

He saw them then, on the path below: a pack of demons. They were the wingless kind, the kind that stayed hidden in the shadows and attacked unsuspecting prey. There was about twenty of them forming a semi-circle around a man who held his sword with the knowledge and confidence that came from being trained to do something since birth. The demons edged forwards, forcing the man backwards and into the mountain face.

Merlin ran until he was above the exact spot where the man was desperately trying to fend off the demons. He peered over the edge; it was a long way down, but as far as Merlin could tell, they hadn’t noticed him there – the man too focussed on the demons, and the demons concentrating on their soon-to-be prey.

Merlin took a deep breath, raised his staff-

And stepped off the edge.

It wasn’t a vertical drop, for which Merlin was thankful.  There was a decent gradient, allowing him to skid down the mountain, staff raised in front of him to guide his way down.

Before he reached the bottom, Merlin pushed off from the mountain-side, jumping over the man, who now had his back pressed against the mountain. He landed in a forward roll, and slammed the staff down into the ground.

A thunderous roar echoed around the mountain range, the ground shook, and cracks formed in the ground from the point where Merlin’s staff had made contact with the ground. The demons faltered, turning their attention to Merlin; the biggest in the pack snapped its jowls menacingly at him.

“ _Acwele_ ,” Merlin shouted, and a pale blue lightning bolt shot from his staff aimed at the centre of the largest demon’s chest. It screamed in pain, before bursting into pieces.

Merlin took a step back to avoid the bits of demon flesh raining down on him. The rest of the pack were retreating quickly now, but that wasn’t enough for Merlin; he was going to finish them off properly while he had the chance. With another flash of his eyes and a muttered spell, the pack was in flames and running back towards the shelter of the trees. They didn’t get far before they were nothing more than a pile of ashes on the path.

The air was filled with silence once more, until it was disrupted by a groan of pain from behind Merlin. He turned round to see that the man had collapsed onto the floor, dropping his sword a few feet away. The man was leaning against the cliff wall, one knee bent, and the other laid out in front of him with a red gash across the thigh. The man’s head was drooped over his chest so all Merlin could see was a mop of blonde hair encrusted with dirt and sweat, but his head didn’t hide the spreading blood stain at his shoulder.

The man moaned again, and Merlin hurried over to his side, placing a hand first on the man’s shoulder, and then the injured leg. Merlin tried to be gentle, but the man flinched anyway, and Merlin grimaced, not wanting to have been too late to save him. The man was saying things under his breath, too quiet for Merlin to hear properly: it seemed to be a mixture of repeated “thank you’s” and other sentences that were so mumbled that Merlin didn’t think the man knew what he was saying.

Muttering the most powerful healing spell he knew, Merlin looked around for any herbs that might be able to help. It was unlikely, considering they were on a well-trodden path, but occasionally rare plants grew in the cracks in mountainsides. There was nothing Merlin recognised, and it was then that his eyes fell on the sword that the man had dropped.

Merlin knew that sword. He recognised the symbols engraved on the blade, he knew the words, knew how it felt to hold, the power that thrummed through it and seemed to vibrate through his entire body.

He pulled his hands away from the man as if he’d had an electric shock. The man seemed to notice, as his head turned slightly towards Merlin.

“Where did you get that sword?” Merlin’s voice shook as he spoke. “ _Where did you get it?”_

Merlin watched the man’s chest rise and fall as he took deep breaths. Merlin waited. It took the man a moment to reply,

“Pulled it from – from a rock… years ago.” It seemed to take him a great effort, but the man raised his head to look Merlin in the eyes. “Honestly, _Mer_ lin… do I need a – a crown… for you to – recognise me?”

Merlin’s heart leapt into his throat as he stared back into the dark blue eyes, the final closing of which had haunted him through the years.

ooOOoo

_I found him_.

That was all Arthur could think as Merlin and he walked along the mountain path. Merlin had said that his leg wound was fine and that he had speeded up the healing process, but it still hurt when Arthur put too much of his weight on it. Merlin was supporting him with an arm around his waist while Arthur had an arm over Merlin’s shoulders, and every now and then Arthur caught Merlin casting concerned glances at him that he pretended not to see.

Arthur could hardly blame him: the last time they had seen each other was on a two day trek during which Arthur had been dying of a stab wound, and now the first thing Merlin had had to do was save him from a hungry pack of demons. It was a miracle that Merlin hadn’t just given him up as a bad job and gone to find someone who wouldn’t try to die on him constantly.

Of the many ways Arthur had imagined his reunion with Merlin to be like, none of them had been like this. They had varied from Arthur finding him at an inn, drunk, to them crossing tracks on an empty mountain pass, or forest trail. He certainly hadn’t expected Merlin’s beaming smile that seemed to erase all the pain and hurt and loneliness from his face in a matter of seconds, nor the hug so tight that it was almost painful, and the choked out “I missed you” in Arthur’s ear.

There had been brief explanations of how Arthur had found Merlin, and confirmation of the rumours surrounding Merlin, but nothing too serious. Neither of them mentioned the last time they had seen each other.

As they walked, Merlin talked about nothing of importance. He told Arthur of the world as it was now – some of the things Arthur already knew, but there was a lot that he hadn’t found out in his years of travelling alone – and of times gone by, of adventures he had had and people he had met. Arthur only half-listened; he was focussed more on Merlin’s tone of voice, the animated way he told the stories, and how his face lit up whenever he peeked a look at Arthur.

Arthur smiled fondly. He struggled to remember a time when he hadn’t been amused by Merlin’s inane chatter on long journeys with the rest of his knights; he was pretty sure he always had, even if he had hidden it with annoyance.

It took Arthur a moment to notice when Merlin stopped talking. Arthur turned to look at him and was about to ask if everything was ok until he noticed Merlin’s deep in thought look, and thought it best not to disturb him – if anything was wrong Arthur trusted Merlin to tell him.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, not that Arthur knew where they were going. Merlin had told him that he had been travelling with a group of people when they had heard the demons attacking him, and they would be waiting for him to return, but he didn’t know how far they were, and neither did Merlin by the looks of it, and that was most likely due to Merlin _jumping down the side of a mountain_ to reach him, rather than taking the path. He was grateful that Merlin had taken the shortcut – if he hadn’t then he would be dead – but he wasn’t used to Merlin doing reckless and downright dangerous things.

Ok, Merlin had made a habit of doing both of those types of things, Arthur just wasn’t used to him doing them with such confidence and power.

Eventually, they rounded a corner and Arthur saw a small group sitting on rocks lining the path. One of them spotted Arthur and Merlin and stood up; Merlin raised his free arm in greeting, and his pace quickened.

Everyone started talking when they came within hearing range, asking what it had been, had Merlin got rid of it, who was the new guy. Merlin didn’t answer until he had let go of Arthur and helped him sit down on one of the rocks, and then he briefly told them what had happened, leaving out that Arthur was a resurrected king.

The others watched him warily and Arthur did his best to ignore them. From what he could tell, these people didn’t fully trust Merlin, but they were happy to have him around if it meant that they had someone to protect them from the demons, and that meant that they trusted Arthur even less.

All except one. Some distance away, a young girl was staring at him from behind a woman who must have been her mother. Arthur smiled at her, and she immediately ran out from behind her mother.

“Gwyneth – Gwen! Get back here!” The girl’s mother shouted, but she ignored her, stopping in front of Arthur, who felt as if the pit of his stomach had vanished.

He was here, and Merlin was here, so why couldn’t this girl be his Guinevere reincarnated? It wasn’t as if he and Merlin had got to this point in time in the same way - he had been resurrected from the grave and Merlin had lived through the years - so it wasn’t completely improbable that Guinevere could have been reincarnated. This girl even looked like her, same dark skin and black hair that fell in tight ringlets down her back, with friendly brown eyes that were looking up at him now full of innocence and trust.

Before Arthur could do more than say hello, Gwyneth’s mother had come over and pulled her away, apologising to him for her daughter’s rudeness, and telling Gwyneth not to talk to strangers. Arthur watched them go, trying not to stare and make the group even more distrustful of him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur saw someone sit down next to him.

“It’s not Gwen,” Merlin said quietly, and in a way that suggested that he knew exactly what Arthur was thinking. Arthur wondered if Merlin could read minds.

“You don’t know that – we’re both here, why can’t anyone else be too?”

“Because you’re the Once and Future King, it was always your destiny to rise again. Gwen fulfilled her destiny, there’s no reason for her to be here.”

“Destiny.” The word felt weird to say. It was something that Merlin had repeatedly said in Camelot, this thing that controlled his life without him knowing it. Arthur didn’t know what to think about it. “What was Guinevere’s destiny?”

“To rule a peaceful kingdom and restore magic to the land.” Arthur could hear the pride in Merlin’s voice, and his heart swelled a little at the words.

Neither spoke for a while. Arthur felt something drop on his head and looked up to see dark rain clouds above them. He felt another drop of rain. And another.

Arthur knew he’d made the right decision to name Guinevere as his successor, and he surprised himself by being happy that she had legalised magic in Camelot - he had no doubt that it was because of Merlin. There was all this talk about destiny though, and he had no idea what his destiny was. He used to think it was to simply rule Camelot, but there was no place for kings in the world now, so why was he so important to rise again? He had been no different to any other King in the Five Kingdoms, living or dead – well, living or dead the last time Arthur had been alive, they were all dead now. Arthur had done what he had had to while he had been king, defending his kingdom, keeping his people safe, just like everyone else. He hadn’t done anything amazing to warrant having a greater destiny than other kings.

“Why me? What was so special about me that it was my destiny to be resurrected? What am I supposed to do now? And how do you know all of this about destinies?”

“Kilgharrah told me – the Great Dragon. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do now, or why it was you – I – no…” Merlin shook his head. “I don’t know.”

It didn’t sound like it to Arthur, it sounded like Merlin knew something about why it was him with this destiny. “You have an idea though, you know something.”

“Not really. It’s not important.” Merlin turned away from Arthur, and he knew that he wouldn’t get anything else out of Merlin on the topic. Arthur grit his teeth, annoyed, but let it go.

Merlin opened his mouth to say something – an apology, maybe, or perhaps he was going to tell Arthur what he thought he knew - but he was interrupted by an ear-piercing scream.

Gwyneth had been skipping along the edge of the path, happily amusing herself with her parents watching, when a spiny hand had appeared from the cliff edge and grabbed her ankle. Her father ran forwards, grabbing her hands and pulling her away while the hand pulled her towards the edge. Then there wasn’t just a hand and arm, but a head and body and legs, and there were more of the things climbing over the edge and swarming the path.

Arthur jumped to his feet, immediately regretting it when the pain in his leg came back and it collapsed from under him, forcing him to sit back down. Next to him, Merlin had done exactly the same, picked up his staff in the next second, and was running towards where Gwyneth’s father was struggling to not let her go.

A bolt of lightning was shot from the staff, just as Merlin had done earlier, and the demon holding Gwyneth let go. Her father pulled her close, as Merlin reached them and he pushed them behind him.

“GO! I’ll hold them off, just get away from here!” Merlin shouted. It took no time for everyone to take his advice and go, running in the direction that Arthur and Merlin had come.

Merlin had knocked back the demons that had managed to crawl onto the path, and was now standing with his hands and staff raised, forming some sort of shield against them that prevented them from getting within a few metres of him.  These demons were different to the ones that Arthur had seen previously: they were small, no more than a metre tall, and were more like goblins than anything, if goblins had bird’s heads and two pairs of arms. Their skin was red and folded so it looked like it was too big for them, and they had hooked beaks that opened to show a deadly set of teeth.

Arthur stood up again, slower this time. He tested his leg, making sure it could hold his weight. It could, so he drew his sword and ran towards Merlin.

“Arthur – no, go with the others!” Merlin shouted.

“Don’t be an idiot, Merlin,” Arthur shouted back, swinging his sword and cutting off the head of a line of demons that had managed to break through the barrier

“I’m serious, I’ll catch up with you later, just go!” A few of the demons were pounding on the invisible shield with their four hands, with others running into it repeatedly. It seemed to be weakening as another handful of demons broke through, and Arthur sliced through them.

“Not likely.”

Merlin didn’t respond, concentrating on keeping the shield up, and Arthur watched, prepared in case it dropped at any moment. He watched beads of sweat run down from Merlin’s forehead, and his arms begin to shake; Arthur could only imagine how difficult it was to keep up the shield, and by the looks of it Merlin wouldn’t be able to keep it up much longer, and if he couldn’t keep it up then it was unlikely he’d be able to fend off the demons.

Arthur ran to Merlin’s side, grabbing his arm.

“Come on, run,” Arthur said, pulling at Merlin’s arm. Merlin turned to look at him in surprise, losing his concentration on the shield. Arthur could tell the moment it dropped because the demons that had been running into it suddenly ran into nothing and fell over with the excess momentum. He kept his grip on Merlin’s arm and started running.

It was raining heavily now, and they splashed through puddles on the ground. Overhead, they could see the lightning splitting the sky, and the following thunder was loud enough to mask the sound of their own footsteps. As they ran, Arthur kept his eyes peeled, looking for a cave or fissure in the rock that they could hide in to escape the demons – there was no chance that they could outrun them or defeat them, not with there being so many. The only thing to do was to hide.

They had lost sight of the others now, and there were no signs of where they had gone. Arthur hoped they had found somewhere to hide, but that was as far as his concern went when they weren’t the ones with hundreds of demons chasing them.

Arthur glanced at Merlin, whose arm he still had hold of. Merlin’s eyes were a flaming gold, and had an odd vacant look that made Arthur think that he wasn’t seeing the same world as him right now. A moment later, Merlin’s running became more sure-footed and focussed.

“There’s a cave up ahead that’s hidden behind a boulder. We can hide there,” Merlin shouted over the sound of another crack of thunder, taking the lead.

They ran for another few minutes before Merlin stopped next to a large boulder. There was a small gap at the bottom that barely looked big enough for them to fit through, but Arthur didn’t question it – they had lost sight of the demons for now, but no doubt they wouldn’t be far behind.

He crouched down, threw his sword and other few possessions in first, and crawled through the gap, having to suck in his stomach to get through.  Merlin followed straight after, telling Arthur not to move too far from the entrance.

It was pitch black in the cave. Arthur heard Merlin mutter something and suddenly there was a ball of blue lighting floating in the air between them.

The cave was narrow but deep, the light barely reaching the far end. From what Arthur could see, it was empty apart from the two of them, and he doubted Merlin would take them into a cave that was infested with demons. It smelt of damp, and the only sounds were the pounding of rain outside and the occasional thunder.

Arthur leaned on the wall, and Merlin did the same opposite him, both panting, out of breath from the run. Arthur had managed to ignore the pain in his leg while they had been running and with adrenaline pumping through his veins, but now they had stopped the pain returned in full force. Merlin had his eyes closed, head leaning back against the wall, and watching him, Arthur felt anger rise in his chest.

He reached over, and punched Merlin on the shoulder.

Merlin’s eyes flew open, confusion clear on his face.

“What was that for?”

“Are you trying to get yourself killed? I didn’t just spend years trying to find you so you could get eaten by those things!”

“Me? I was holding them off so you could get away.”

“Right, and you were doing such a good job at it, too.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I was fine until you started distracting me.”

“I was helping, you looked like you were struggling.”

“I think I know what my magic can do better than you. I was fine.” Merlin’s voice was rising now, echoing around the cave.

“You looked like you needed help. And – I’m sorry – but if your magic is so powerful how come you never used to use it to save your own life? I can’t remember the number of times you almost died and didn’t do anything to stop it.” It was something that Arthur had thought about sometimes, when he had let his mind wander on nights he couldn’t sleep. He hadn’t exactly planned to ask Merlin about it like this though.

“That’s different – when I’m injured my power is less, but I’m perfectly fine now – you didn’t need to come back for me!”

“But you never even used to use it to stop yourself getting hurt in the first place. Gaius said you were the greatest sorcerer to live, but you just never used it.”

“So I was just supposed to out myself as a sorcerer in front of you and everyone? I told you this, I didn’t want you to have to have to defy Uther because of me.”

“But why? You risked your life, you kept your secret for years just so it wouldn’t put me in an awkward situation with my father - but why did you care? So what if I got caught going behind my father’s back? I’d get thrown in the dungeons for a night, he did that to me anyway and I didn’t care, why would _you?”_

“Because I love you!”

ooOOoo

The words hung in the air, and Merlin was suddenly aware of how very small the cave they were in was, and how close Arthur was to him. Arthur didn’t move away – he didn’t move. He was staring at Merlin, an unfathomable expression on his face, and all Merlin wanted to do was rewind to a few seconds ago and _not say those words_ because what was he supposed to do now?

It had taken him a long time to admit to himself that he was in love with Arthur

The rain was still falling outside the cave, and Merlin could hear the _drip drip drip_ of water leaking into the cave.

“Since when?” From what he could see, Arthur’s expression was neutral, and Merlin had no idea what the right way to answer this was. He could bring down demons with a sweep of his hand and freeze time in the blink of an eye, but talking about this with Arthur was more terrifying and dangerous than either of those things. He would much rather go back to arguing, at least he was used to that.

“I don’t know… One day I just knew. It crept up on me,” Merlin lied for the third time that day. He did know roughly the time when he had realised that his life was devoted to Arthur no matter what, and there was no point trying to deny it. It had been after Freya, after he had poisoned Morgana to save Camelot – to save Arthur – and after his father had died. After he had watched too many people he loved die and after he had realised that he would do anything to keep Arthur safe, even if that meant hurting other people. It had been his destiny, but it had also been Merlin’s choice to protect Arthur, because he couldn’t let someone else do it who wouldn’t have cared for Arthur as much as he did.

“What have you been doing for two thousand years?”

“Waiting.”

“For?”

Merlin hesitated for a heartbeat. “You.”

Arthur looked thoughtful, his expression tender rather than cold and distant like Merlin had thought it would be. After a moment, he started speaking.

“I loved Guinevere, truly. There was no one else I would have rather had as my Queen.” A small smile played on his face, and, now that he had finally admitted his feelings, it cut through Merlin like a sword, his stomach squirming and his chest feeling hollow. “But, there was always something… If you weren’t there, if you were _collecting herbs,_ or at the _tavern_ , or just on one of your mysterious disappearances – it felt wrong, like a part of me was missing.”

Merlin stopped breathing and his chest felt tight. There was no way he was hearing this, it had to be a dream.

“I didn’t understand at first, I think that’s why I hated you so much. I’d lived my life fine until you turned up insulting me, but then I couldn’t do anything without you , and I was always looking for you and –” Arthur paused, frowning, and then his expression softened. “But I knew I couldn’t do anything about it - I was the prince, I could have people executed if I wanted, but I knew that even if I told you, and by some unlikely chance you felt the same, nothing could ever happen. I was the prince, then the king, and then I was married. But now -” Arthur took a deep breath and looked up at Merlin through his eyelashes, a questioning look in his eyes “- now I’m nothing.”

Merlin knew what Arthur wanted; he wanted Merlin to say yes, that now it was ok, that they could be whoever they wanted to be. He opened his mouth to say it, but the words stuck in his throat. What Arthur had said wasn’t true – Arthur would never be _nothing_.

Merlin took a step closer to Arthur so that they were almost nose to nose. He heard Arthur’s breath hitch when he cupped Arthur’s face with one hand.

“You’re still a king. You’ll always be my king.”

Merlin closed the distance between them, and kissed the man he had loved for two thousand years.

Arthur didn’t respond at first, whether that was because of shock or hesitancy Merlin didn’t know, but then he moaned into Merlin’s mouth and started kissing back with urgency. It wasn’t a careful kiss, there was the clashing of teeth and bumping of noses, and at one point Arthur somehow managed to head-butt Merlin, which caused Merlin to pull away, laughing, until Arthur pulled his head down for another kiss.

Several kisses later, Merlin pulled away again, breathing heavily. Arthur’s hands, which were placed at Merlin’s hips, pressed their bodies closer together, but Arthur let out a hiss of pain. Merlin stepped out of Arthur’s embrace, and Arthur slid down the wall until he was sat on the floor.

Merlin knelt down beside him, all the happiness draining out of him to be replaced with worry.

“Arthur? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing – my leg – it’s fine.” Arthur spoke through clenched teeth. He didn’t say anything or move for a minute, but then Merlin watched him visibly relax.

Merlin moved to sit beside Arthur, and Arthur immediately put an arm around him. Merlin smiled at this small gesture, but the smile soon faded.

In the excitement of seeing Arthur again, of revealing their feelings for each other, Merlin had forgotten one very important thing.

Arthur was mortal, while he was not. Arthur would grow old, he would get injured, he would die, and Merlin would watch this happen and not be able to stop it. He would have to sit by powerless while the person he loved died again. Merlin thought he had gone through watching people he loved die for the last time when he had sat by his mother’s bedside and watched the life slowly fade out of her, unable to prevent the disease that had taken her. After that, Merlin had sworn to never leave Avalon, and to never love someone again.

He had broken both of those promises now.

“Merlin?”

“Yeah?” Merlin turned his head slightly to look at Arthur, a small smile flickering unbidden on his face. After all this time, it was hard to believe that he had Arthur back, and every time he spoke, every time he looked at Merlin, or touched him, or kissed him, Merlin had to stop himself from grinning.

“What’s wrong?”

Merlin sighed, the smile fading from his face.

“You’re mortal, and I’m… not, apparently. After all this –” Merlin made a wild arm gesture with his free arm “- I’m still going to lose you again, and I don’t –”

Arthur interrupted him with a short kiss.

“It doesn’t matter,” Arthur said. “If this is our second chance, let’s take it. What will come will come, and we can deal with whatever it is then.”

“What do we do now, then?” Merlin asked, leaning into Arthur’s arms, pressing his lips against the spot where Arthur’s jaw met his ear.

“We wait for the rain to stop, I suppose.”

ooOOoo

Over the years, the rumours changed.

Where there had previously only been one man with the mission of ridding the world of demons, there were now two. They travelled together, searching for the demon nests, herding the demons away from populated areas, destroying them one by one. Some villages swore that they hadn’t had a demon attack in months, that they had stopped suddenly, and it would only be a few weeks later that the whispers would reach them. Whispers of a sighting of two men, one wearing a hooded cloak, and the other a red cape embroidered with a golden dragon.

For the moment, however, Arthur had ditched his cloak. They would return to where they stored their belongings – safe under Merlin’s wards, of course – later that evening. For now -

Arthur ran.

He adjusted his stride to avoid tripping on a protruding tree root, and dared to glance behind him. He had lost sight of the demons for now, but he could still hear them screeching as their prey got away from them, but not even that could drown out the pounding of Arthur’s footsteps on the forest floor, or the thumping of his heart. That pack hadn’t expected him to have an escape route, and now they were furious that what had looked like an easy meal was escaping, not to mention hungry. Arthur and Merlin had been interfering with their hunting patrols for a few days, limiting their food. It had all been part of the plan, but now Arthur had to wonder at how much of a good idea the plan had been.

He reached the stream that ran through the forest, leaped over it and started running along it. This was one of their attempts to lose the demons, not that it was expected to work – they had a far superior sense of smell than a normal animal.

Arthur had been running along his new path for less than a minute when he looked behind him again to see that the demons had caught up to him. He started scanning the ridge to his right for any sign of Merlin, but there was nothing. Having Merlin there to destroy the demons was their last resort if Arthur hadn’t managed to get rid of them chasing him by now – Merlin had to be there.

_Maybe he hadn’t reached the spot yet_. Arthur forced himself to run faster, hoping that Merlin’s part of the plan hadn’t gone wrong; his part was supposed to be easy – go in, blast the nest to pieces and get out – it had been Arthur who had ended up with the dangerous job.

But if Merlin had been injured somehow…

That was when Arthur spotted the tree branches on the ridge above him moving, and not because of the wind. There was the movement of a dark figure, and then Merlin appeared in a gap in the trees ahead of him.

Merlin jumped down to Arthur’s level, raised both hands and Arthur saw his eyes flash gold, and he didn’t need to look to know that the demons behind him wouldn’t worry them anymore.

Arthur slowed down as he neared Merlin, ready to stop to catch his breath, but before he could, Merlin ran forward the few paces to reach him. He grabbed Arthur’s hand and pulled him in a new direction.

“Nice to see you, too,” Arthur shouted over their thundering footsteps.

“Just keep running, we’ve still got some on our tail.”

“You were supposed to destroy the nest!”

“I did, I just picked up some friends on the way.”

“Why didn’t you just magic them away?”

“These ones are a lot bigger.”

Arthur was running out of breath again, so he let the conversation drop. If Merlin thought that running away from these demons was easier than stopping to fight them off then he would trust his judgement and save his breath.

Merlin led him through a maze of trees, going back on themselves more than once in an attempt to confuse their pursuers. Arthur thought he caught sight of one, about half the height of the tallest trees, and with muscled arms and legs, legs that caused the ground to vibrate slightly whenever they took a step. After running through the stream for long enough for the water to seep through Arthur’s boots, they came to an open field, on the other side of which was a hill with the ruins of a castle on top.

They made their way towards it along the forest edge, stopping where the forest came closest to the entrance of the ruins. Merlin put his arm out, and Arthur stayed back in the shade, watching. Merlin looked around slowly – Arthur could only guess that he was using his magic to check whether it was safe, a guess that was confirmed when Merlin nodded at him and left the cover of the trees.

Arthur followed, running up the hill and into the ruins, across what looked like an old courtyard, up a set of weathered steps, and into the ruins properly. Down a corridor, round a corner, through a doorway that had long since lost its door – Arthur thought that Merlin was trying to confuse anything that was following their scent again, until he ran right into him, having stopped around a corner and leaning against the wall, breathing heavily with a hand pressed to his side.

Arthur joined him in using the wall to prop himself up. He leaned over, hands on his knees, taking deep breaths to get rid of the stitch in his side.

“Are you alright?” Merlin asked. Arthur nodded, too out of breath to reply. “Sorry about that, the big ones held me up. I don’t think they’ll follow us here.”

They fell into a silence, allowing themselves to regain their breath. When Arthur finally stood up straight, Merlin had taken a few steps away and was casting a curious and wary eye around the place. Arthur didn’t see what the problem was, this corridor as no different to any of the others they had ran down, nor any of the other ruins that they had seen in the past few months. The walls were covered in dirt, turning them brown and black, with no way of knowing what the original colour was. There were weeds growing in the cracks in the floor and walls, and their wet footprints were still visible, glistening slightly in the sunlight that streamed down through the holes in the ceiling.

“Is something wrong?”

“No? I think,” Merlin started, and then paused, “I think we’re in Camelot.”

Arthur’s eyes widened, and he stared around, trying to recognise where he was in his home. Merlin grabbed his hand and led him back the way they had come in, through the corridors, across the courtyard that was now a grassy field framed with ruins of hallways, turning him around to face the ruins when they reached what looked like it used to be a drawbridge, but the wood had rotted away and the river below had been filled in so it was possible to walk across to the ruin.

Merlin raised his arm to point.

“If those are the steps to the main entrance, then that stone table in front is the old statue of the knight on a horse. The old well has been filled in, and –” Merlin motioned around them “- these all used to be covered walkways. That one led down to Gaius’ chambers.”

Slowly, Arthur stepped out of Merlin’s hold and walked into the courtyard again. He remembered it busy and full of life, but now it was empty, and no one had lived here for a long time. He wondered if his father was still buried here, or Guinevere – he never had asked Merlin where she had been laid to rest – but then he realised that he didn’t want to see them, didn’t want to imagine their rotted corpses below him. Despite having spent a long time forcing himself to live in the present rather than dwelling on the past, he didn’t think he was ready for that yet.

Being here, now, was almost too much. He had lost so much here, lived so much here, but there was nothing left. Merlin had said that he was the greatest king Camelot had ever have, and yet there was nothing here to distinguish it as his home, as anyone’s home. It was as if it had always existed in this state of ruin, with nothing to ever suggest that it had meant something to someone.

He wanted to enter properly, to see his chambers, the Great Hall and the council chamber, to walk down the hallways that led to the kitchens as he had as a child, hoping to steal food from one of the nicer cooks. The upper floors were gone though, and where they still stood the floor was most likely unstable to walk on, or the stairwells blocked.

Arthur’s heart ached to be back in that world, where he had this place to be safe.

“Arthur?”

Without realising, Arthur had reached the middle of the courtyard and was turning round on the spot absently, staring at the walls surrounding him but not seeing them. Arthur didn’t reply, but he stopped turning when he faced Merlin.

There must have been something in his expression reflecting his thoughts, because Merlin was suddenly at his side, pulling Arthur into his arms, Arthur’s head forced into the place where Merlin’s neck and shoulder met.

“This is my home,” Arthur said, or tried to, because his words were muffled by his face being pressed into Merlin’s neck.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Another thought struck Arthur. “This was my _kingdom_ , and there’s nothing left, everything I ever did was for nothing.”

“That’s not true.” Merlin’s voice was strong in Arthur’s ear, determined to make him believe what he was saying. “Your people were happy, you ruled a kingdom that was safe, you gave people what they needed to live. Everyone dies, and not everything stands the test of time, but that doesn’t mean that the lives of the people who made the things that others don’t remember were worthless. I told you about the legends – you’re remembered. You always will be.”

Arthur looked up at Merlin, pulling away slightly to see his face better. Merlin’s steely blue eyes stared into his own, and Arthur could see flecks of gold in them, as if his magic was simmering just below the surface of his skin. His face was set in a determined but tender look that was full of love.

They stood like that for a while, holding each other and having a silent conversation with their eyes. Then, Arthur felt Merlin’s hold on him tighten, his head bowed down slightly, their foreheads resting together for a brief moment before Merlin kissed him.

It was a long languid kiss, with the gentle pulling of each other’s’ lips and the feel of Merlin’s tongue slipping inside his mouth, teasing, making it feel like the kiss lasted a lifetime. It was easy to lose track of his sense when Merlin kissed him like this; easy to forget his troubles and the fact that there was a pack of demons in the vicinity that could come around the corner at any moment.

So Arthur did just that – forget. He allowed himself to know nothing apart from the press of Merlin’s body against his own, the sensation of lips on lips, the fighting of their tongues as they both lazily fought for dominance. In that moment, Arthur was in a state of bliss.

Arthur slid one hand up the other man’s back, not stopping until his fingers were tangled in Merlin’s hair and forcing his head down so that their lips were crushed together. Desire grew in the pit of Arthur’s stomach, and the kiss became urgent and sloppy. Arthur’s other hand slid down to the hem of Merlin’s shirt, fingered it for a moment, before sliding his hand underneath it, pressing onto the small of Merlin’s back and causing their hips to rock together. He could feel Merlin’s erection against his own through their trousers, and the contact made Arthur’s eyes roll up into his head.

Merlin moaned, breaking the kiss, and he shifted slightly, forcing a leg between Arthur’s and starting to rub his cock against Arthur’s leg.

They were both panting now; Arthur could feel his heartbeat racing as if he had just run a marathon. Then, Merlin’s lips were against his skin again, this time running along his jawline to his ear, kissing and licking and biting on their way, and Arthur couldn’t stop his breath faltering, nor his hips jerking into Merlin’s, desperate for more contact.

“G-God… don’t stop,” Arthur stuttered out, his eyes closed and focussing on his breathing. He wasn’t sure that Merlin had heard him, until he could feel Merlin kissing the skin behind his ear, and sucking at his earlobe. Merlin pulled away just enough to whisper in Arthur’s ear.

“Of course not… _sire_.”

His voice was low and throaty and full of want, and the sound of it went straight to Arthur’s already painfully hard cock. He moaned, and could feel Merlin’s smile against his jaw. Merlin pulled away, and their eyes met – Merlin’s were lidded and the usually bright blue were dark with lust. Arthur licked his lips before Merlin’s were pressed against his own again, and this time there was nothing lazy or slow about the kiss.

Arthur didn’t resist when he felt Merlin manoeuvring him backwards. Arthur tripped and stumbled while Merlin pushed him until he felt something solid at his back, something cold and hard and pointy that stuck into his shoulders but he was nonetheless grateful for, as he thought his legs were going to collapse from under him any moment now. Merlin pushed him against the stone until there was no space between them, and Arthur grew frustrated at the layers of clothing between them – he wanted them to be gone so that all he could feel was Merlin’s skin against his own, he knew Merlin could do that, Gods, he had done it enough times previously, but right now Merlin seemed to be determine to keep Arthur as frustrated as possible.

“Mer…lin,” Arthur moaned, when it all became too much for him. He felt Merlin’s smile against his neck, moving to kiss his mouth again, and Arthur welcomed his tongue.

Merlin moved one hand from around Arthur’s shoulders to run it slowly down his side, to the top of his jeans where he brought his hand round to the front. Merlin toyed with the buttons for a moment – a moment far too long where Arthur was concerned – and then deftly unbuttoned and unzipped the jeans, pushing them down one-handedly, along with Arthur’s boxers.

Arthur almost came at the release of pressure on his cock. He jerked his hips, rubbing against Merlin, but Merlin took a small step back, shaking his head slightly. Arthur moaned into his mouth, and Merlin responded by smiling and pulling away, which only caused Arthur to hiss in annoyance. Merlin smiled wider, kissing down his neck. When he reached Arthur’s collarbone, he started sucking, pushing Arthur’s shirt out of the way to reach the spot he wanted.

Still Merlin refused to touch Arthur’s cock, concentrating on sucking and kissing at his skin, the longer Merlin spent doing this, the louder Arthur’s moans and gasps of pleasure became, until he was sure that he could be heard for miles. Eyes closed, Arthur kept one hand on Merlin’s back, the other in Merlin’s hair.

Then, without warning, there was a rush of cold air where Merlin’s body had been. Shocked, Arthur opened his eyes. For a brief second he thought Merlin had disappeared, and then Arthur saw him on his knees in front of him. What blood was left pumping through his body rushed to his cock as Merlin pushed his trousers further down, placed his hands on Arthur’s hips, and wrapped his lips around the end of his cock.

Arthur’s head hit the stone behind him, his mouth falling open as Merlin took the tip of his cock into his mouth, pulling off to lick around the head before taking in another inch. He repeated that, slowly taking in more and more of Arthur’s erection until his lips were at the base, and Arthur had to restrain from fucking into his perfect ‘O’ shaped mouth, because the sight of Merlin in front of him like that, worshipping him with his mouth and tongue, did things to him that he couldn’t control. His hands were balled into fists in Merlin’s hair, and his cries of “ _Merlin_ ” grew louder each time Merlin took more of his length.

He was paying so much attention on the feel of Merlin’s lips and tongue on his cock that he didn’t notice his hands gliding over his skin, leaving his hips to trace patterns on his arse cheeks, until he felt the teasing pressure of a single finger against his hole.

“ _Fuck_ , Merlin.”

Merlin ignored him, pushing his finger further into Arthur, sucking him off at the same time, and Arthur could feel the orgasm inside of him rising, it wouldn’t take long, not now his senses were overwhelmed by Merlin, the feel of him inside of him, and around his cock, the taste of his kisses still in Arthur’s mouth, the tunnel vision that meant all Arthur could see was Merlin’s head bobbing up and down. Arthur’s restrain crumbled, and he started fucking into Merlin’s mouth with abandon. One, two, three thrusts, and Arthur came in Merlin’s mouth. He felt Merlin swallow around his cock and Arthur’s legs collapsed from under him.

When he came to, it was to Merlin kissing his face lightly. He was lying on the floor, Merlin on top of him – still fully clothed – kissing first across his forehead, and then down the side of one eye, across his cheekbone and down the bridge of his nose, ending at the corner of his mouth. Arthur turned his head slightly so his lips brushed against Merlin’s.

“Arthur,” Merlin groaned. “I love you, want to be inside you.”

“Want you inside me,” Arthur said breathlessly. “Got to do something about those clothes though.”

Merlin kissed him again before standing up and taking a step back, which made Arthur pout. Arthur raised his head to get a better look, and watched Merlin undress. He did it slowly, a small smile on his face, unbuttoning his cloak with a sexy swing of his hips, and turning so he had his back to Arthur when he came to taking off his underwear, which he flung over his shoulder. Merlin’s boxers landed next to Arthur’s head.

Arthur’s cock had grown hard again during Merlin’s strip tease. Merlin settled himself between Arthur’s legs and stroked his cock once, and then slid his hand to his arse. He entered one finger, making Arthur’s hips hitch upwards. Arthur reached upwards and pulled Merlin’s head down for an open-mouthed kiss that had far too much tongue and spit but Arthur didn’t care. He licked into Merlin’s mouth as he felt Merlin insert another finger, and a third soon after, stretching him open.

Arthur hissed at the burn of Merlin’s fingers inside him.

“Sorry,” Merlin breathed. “I just – I don’t want to wait, I want to feel you.”

All Arthur could do was moan in response, causing Merlin to smile slightly. Merlin pulled away with one last brush of his lips against Arthur’s. Arthur watched as Merlin’s head moved down his body to his cock, placing a kiss at the base, before murmuring something and his eyes flashed gold –

The breath went out of Arthur as he felt a warmth spread through him. He felt as if he’d been worked open for hours, he could feel his hole open and slick and he craved for Merlin to fill it and fuck him until he was sore.

Merlin didn’t waste any time, guiding his cock into Arthur. He paused when he was fully seated, giving Arthur time to get used to the feel of his cock in him – not that Arthur would ever get used to it. Each time Merlin fucked him it was like a new experience, and Arthur would never tire of having Merlin in him, or the feel of Merlin’s heavy breathing on his face, or Merlin’ shouts of “ _Arthur Arthur Arthur_ ” as he came.

Slowly, Merlin pulled out, and then slammed back into Arthur. His thrusts were hard and deep, hitting _that spot_ inside Arthur each time, until the courtyard was full of the sound of skin slapping skin, and Merlin’s panting, and Arthur crying out for “ _more, fuck yes, harder, Merlin, want you to fuck me open_.”

Merlin’s pace quickened, and Arthur could tell he was getting close to his orgasm. Merlin moved his hand to Arthur’s cock, jerking it out of rhythm. A few thrusts later and Merlin was coming, Arthur could feel it spilling into him, filling him up. Merlin collapsed on top of him, eyes closed with his mouth open in a silent moan, his hand still around Arthur’s erection. Arthur placed his hand over Merlin’s, using his hand to finish himself off. As he neared his own orgasm, Arthur saw Merlin’s eyes flicker open, a smile on his face as he watched Arthur come.

They lay on the grassy floor - Merlin on top of Arthur, his head in the hollow of Arthur’s shoulder - until their breathing slowed down and Merlin’s weight started to crush Arthur. Merlin carefully rolled off Arthur, but curled round Arthur’s side, carrying on using Arthur’s shoulder as a pillow.

Arthur put an arm around Merlin and hugged him close. He watched Merlin breath, trying to memorise everything about him in that moment, from the black-almost-blue colour of his hair in the sunlight contrasting with his ivory skin, to the soft line of his body pressed against his own. Arthur loved moments like this, when they were both worn out from sex, and Merlin would fall asleep straight away, leaving Arthur to stare and wonder at him.

It might have been fate that made them find each other again, and it might be their destiny to be together, but Arthur couldn’t help feeling how lucky he was to have Merlin. Merlin was everything Arthur needed; he had been an empty shell before he had met him, going through life living in the moment and not caring about anything. Then Merlin had walked into Camelot, and for some unknown reason had had complete faith in him, had always pushed Arthur to be the best man that he could be. Even now, Merlin challenged him, and Arthur loved him all the more for him.

A breeze picked up, making ripples in the grass and Merlin shuddered in his sleep. Arthur pulled him closer, planting a kiss on his head, and wishing this moment would last forever.

He knew it couldn’t. Soon, they would have to move, get out of the open. They would go back to where their small stash of belongings was hidden, and journey on, their job here done. Arthur didn’t hate it now, all the travelling. Never having enough to eat, always being on the run from something, fearing for his own and Merlin’s lives at all times – somehow it wasn’t quite as bad.

Not now he’d found Merlin.


End file.
